The last years
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Court faction in the 1540s
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On I January 1540, Henry VIII caught his first glance of Anne of
Cleves - the woman with whom Thomas Cromwell had arranged a diplomatic
marriage, in order to cement links with the Protestant Princes of
Germany who were joined in an alliance known as the Schmalkaldic League.
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Henry's anger fell on Thomas Cromwell, architect of the marriage. Cromwell was already facing increasing opposition from conservatives at court - especially Bishop Stephen Gardiner and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk - who resented Cromwell's support of Protestant preachers. | ||
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Thomas Cromwell's fall occurred with dramatic suddenness. In April 1540, he was created Earl of Essex and made lord chamberlain - signs of royal favor. On 10 June 1540 he was arrested for treason, and he was executed on Tyburn Hill, 28 July 1540. | ||
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After Cromwell's fall, factional conflict became endemic at court as
Henry VIII lurched from one advisor to another.
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A brief Howard ascendancy followed the marriage, and conservative policies were pursued in the church. But Catherine had been indiscreet with at least three men before marriage, and did not change her ways thereafter. | ||
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Archbishop Thomas Cranmer - chief of the Protestant party - supplied Henry with evidence of her infidelities in November 1541. Catherine was beheaded, 10 February 1542. | ||
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During the following years, religious reformers and reactionaries struggled for ascendancy. Thomas Cranmer was imprisoned for heresy (1543) but soon released. Stephen Gardiner was in turn arrested and released (1544,) and finally fell from Henry's favor in 1546. | ||
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Henry attached himself to a
sixth wife 12 July 1543 - Catherine Parr. An attractive and intelligent
widow, Catherine had hoped to marry Thomas Seymour (younger brother of Henry's
third wife, Jane; after Henry's death she did marry him.)
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| Henry's death when the Howards and Gardiner were in deep disfavor left the Seymour-Protestant faction in control just at the time that Edward VI succeeded. |
Renewed war
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In June 1542, France attacked Charles V's dominions. Henry VIII decided to take advantage of this to attack France, which had been making moves to strengthen its alliance with Scotland. | ||
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On 24 November 1542 an invading Scottish army was routed by the English at Solway Moss. Soon afterwards, the Scottish King James V died, leaving his throne to his six-day old daughter Mary. The English decided that the opportunity of taking over Scotland was too good to miss, and proposed a marriage between Henry's son and heir Edward and Mary Queen of Scots; they used military force to persuade the Scots to agree ("the rough wooing" of Mary.) | ||
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In 1544, two armies were equipped and dispatched - one led by Henry against France, and one commanded by Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, against Scotland. | ||
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Henry's army besieged Boulogne and captured the city in September. He returned home in triumph, but unfortunately Charles V abruptly made a separate peace with Francis. Henry's troops found themselves facing a large French army alone. His subordinate commanders (Thomas Howard and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk) abandoned the city precipitately and withdrew to Calais, only to return again in response to Henry's furious orders. | ||
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In the Truce of1546, Henry - lacking cash, and threatened with French invasion
- had to agree to ultimate withdrawal from Boulogne.
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Neither the French nor the Scottish campaigns produced any long-term gains, yet the expense was enormous. The wars cost about £3 million, and almost bankrupted the crown. Even after selling vast tracts of monastic land and taxing at record-high levels, Henry needed more money. |
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The Great Debasement |
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Groats of Henry
VIII's last years - note the coppery-brown tone to the
"silver". |
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Until Henry's reign, English currency was made of valuable metals - gold and silver - whose face value was approximately the same as their bullion value. To pay for his wars, Henry decided to mix the silver in his coins with base metal (copper). |
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Soon the "silver" coinage was so debased that it contained more copper than silver. Henry's subjects derisively called him "Old Coppernose" as the copper in the coins tended to show through first on the high surfaces - e.g. the nose of the portrait. |
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The debasement of the coinage helped cause rampant inflation, as people demanded proportionally more of the impure coins. The price of imports increased, for foreigners would not accept debased currency. |
| The economic disruption caused by debasement and inflation continued into the 1560s; it was only in 1562 that the debased coins were fully withdrawn from circulation. |
The accession of Edward
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When Henry VIII's final illness struck him, his physicians were afraid to tell him he was dying, for the Treason Act forbade predicting the king's death. Some of his servants were less pusillanimous and Archbishop Cranmer was summoned in time to console Henry at his death, 28 January 1547. |
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Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, at once moved to ensure that his nephew Edward VI succeeded. |
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Henry VIII had made a Will determining the succession on his death. Statute acknowledged that this will had the force of law. The Seymour faction's control of the Privy Chamber and of Henry's seal ensured that the Will accorded with their ambitions. |
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Henry's Will provided that Edward VI should succeed on his death. If Edward died without heirs, Mary should then accede, followed by Elizabeth, if Mary too died childless. Should all his children die without issue, the throne was to go to the descendants of his younger sister, Mary - not those of his elder sister, Margaret. |
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The preference shown to the Grey line, over the Stuart, seems authentic Henry. He had always disliked Margaret, and she had married into the royal family of Scotland (ally of France and enemy of England.) However, the predominance of the Seymour faction on the Council of sixteen appointed to rule during Edward VI's minority has led some to suspect that judicious alterations were made to the Will. |
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Edward VI was only nine years old at his succession, but he was never a nonentity. A precocious, strong-willed child, he was trained from the tenderest years to rule, and embraced Protestantism with youthful dogmatism. |
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Edward Seymour at once grasped the reins of power - he was appointed Lord Protector on 16 February, and created Duke of Somerset on 19 February, the day before Edward's coronation. His intention of ruling autocratically soon became apparent. |
